Resolution
by FavouriteYear
Summary: Death changes everyone. SangoxKagome, KikyouxKagome Implied Inu YashaxKagome and Inu YashaxKikyou. Yuri.


**Title:** Resolution  
**Fandom:** Inu Yasha  
**Disclaimer:** All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  
**Pairings: **Kikyou/Kagome, Sango/Kagome and Implied Inu Yasha/Kagome and Inu Yasha/Kikyou  
**A/N:** Bribe fic written for **tragicamente**

* * *

Kagome remembers the tangy stench of blood all over her clothes, on her hands, on her skin…everywhere. She remembers screaming for Inu Yasha until her throat felt like it had been ripped apart. She remembers finding him lying on the ground, a tangled mess of blood and guts and slime from the various demons that made Naraku. 

She doesn't remember anything else afterward.

* * *

She remembers the musty smell of the earth they laid upon Inu Yasha's mangled remains, his faithful Tessusaiga buried with him. She remembers feeling as if her world had fallen down around, her soul bruised and battered. She remembers wanting to throw herself into his grave, and being forever laid to rest with him. She doesn't remember Sango's arms warm and comforting around her. She doesn't…all she wants is for her soul to stop screaming, to stop crying, for her heart to stop aching. But they don't. Nothing silences the screams; no hands wipe away the tears and no balm to soothe her heart. So she clutches the completed jewel in her hands and wishes, and wishes so hard for him to be alive. But she sees no bright light, no Inu Yasha alive in all his arrogant glory, nothing.

Sango thinks that Kagome's silently dying. And there's nothing she can do to stop it.

* * *

It's Kikyou who finds Kagome. She's clawing at Inu Yasha's grave, hands torn and her blood mingling with the grave soil. It's Kikyou; smelling of death and mud and sin; who covers her hands and pulls her away.

And neither of them know why.

* * *

Kikyou thinks that if Kagome tilts her head a certain way, she can see herself; which in essence is perhaps why she reached out to her. But when Kagome looks up at her, face tear-streaked, she thinks, no, she was never quite _this _pathetic. 

Kikyou is still holding Kagome's hands.

* * *

Some days, Sango thinks she can hear Kagome screaming so loudly, she's half-afraid her friend's lungs would burst, but when she looks towards her, she finds Kagome staring into the forest as if expecting Inu Yasha to come bursting through any moment. 

Sango doesn't know what to do.

* * *

Somehow, it becomes so natural for _them_ to seek each other out. When _he_ was alive, they avoided one another, now they're drawn together like moths to a flame; both seeking that empathy, _they_ know that only _they _can give the other. There is a certain kind of irony in that. 

Kagome thinks that Kikyou positively glows when the moonlight falls on her pale skin, _just so_.

* * *

Sango asks Kagome one day, why she doesn't try to go home, and Kagome says, that if she does, then she'll know that _he's _really gone, and that he won't _ever_ come again, to drag her back to the feudal period. 

Sango understands that.

* * *

Kikyou, thinks, it's time she moved on and that Kagome should too, when she tells her that, Kagome bursts into tears and wraps her arms around her, and tells her that she doesn't want her to leave. 

It's only natural for Kikyou, to return the girl's embrace and tell her, that no, she doesn't want to leave either.

* * *

Sango, knows Kagome's hiding something. That she disappears every night to someplace. Miroku tells her that she's worrying about nothing that Kagome is only going to visit Inu Yasha's grave that she's still mourning for him. 

Sango doesn't agree.

* * *

When Kagome kisses Kikyou for the first time, it's like two pieces of a puzzle falling into place. She tells Kikyou this. Kikyou gives her, that annoying superior look that she's wont to give, and says, that, it was obvious, that she is Kagome, and Kagome is her.

Kagome couldn't agree more.

* * *

One night, Sango follows Kagome, because she just _knows,_ Kagome has a secret. What she didn't expect was to for it to be _that_.

When morning comes, Sango cannot bring herself to look at Kagome. She tells herself to pretend she never saw anything. That she didn't hear, Kagome screaming Kikyou's name. Kikyou, who was made of clay and dirt and smelt like death and filth.

* * *

Sango, doesn't know how to explain that dark, gnawing feeling clawing at her heart.

One day Kikyou, mentions casually that Sango might be jealous of her. Kagome looks horrified and tells her she's imagining things, and Kikyou smirks and asks her if she really believes that.

Kagome doesn't answer.

* * *

Sango now knows what that strange gnawing dark feeling is. And she thinks Kikyou knows too.

She cannot bring herself to look at Kagome, when the girl asks her if she's alright.

She thinks, she now knows what Kagome felt everytime she saw Inu Yasha go chasing after Kikyou.

Sometimes she wishes that the undead priestess would really just disappear from their lives forever.

* * *

These days Kagome finds herself looking at Sango more and more often, when they're helping Kaede, or when they go to the hot-springs to wash of the sweat and grime of the day's dirt.

Kagome blushes hotly, when Sango catches her looking in her direction and asks her if anything was the matter.

* * *

One night, many years later, Kikyou tells Kagome, that her time is over, that she can no longer walk this earth among the living. That she is leaving forever.

Kagome just wraps her arms around her predecessor . Kagome and Kikyou know that they are essentially the same being, and that leaving doesn't mean separation.

Yet it hurts.

* * *

Sango, knows when Kikyou has left, because Kagome no longer goes in search of her at night. Instead, every night the girl curls herself closer to Sango. She still sleeps fitfully, but Sango can no longer hear her screaming.

Sango thinks maybe, just maybe everything will be okay now.

* * *

One morning, Kagome wakes up and _just knows, _that everything's going to be alright again. The thought of Inu Yasha being truly gone, doesn't make her want to claw her way into his grave and lay down with him for all eternity.

That's when she goes looking for Sango.

* * *

Inu Yasha's been dead for 30 years.

Kikyou's been gone for 20.

The jewel (albeit purified) hangs around Kagome's neck.

Miroku's still the pervert he was 30 years ago.

Shippou's is a tall, strapping demon boy.

Sango still loves Kagome with all her heart.

Kagome no longer expects to see Inu Yasha striding out of the forest, she no longer dreams of blood and screams and the cloying stench of death surrounding her. She is finally complete.

**FIN**


End file.
